Church working to raise money, donations for family in house explosion

A family continues to recover after losing everything in an explosion that destroyed their home.

Now, their community and a local church are organizing an event to help the family.

“I do consider this to be a miracle,” said Rev. Dwight Kingsbury.

Kingsbury said he believes the only explanation for their survival is that it was an act of God and now he's calling on his parishioners and members of the community to donate to this family who lost everything.

"Even the Michigan State Police told me they have never seen anything or anyone survive something like that," Kingsbury said.

A father and five children were blown away from their home in an explosion that is still being investigated. One of the five children had injuries which sent them to a Detroit hospital.

Kingsbury said his sermon following that miracle, he called on his parishioners to help the Chapmans, who traveled a long way to worship on Sundays at Faith Church of the Nazarene in Bay City.

"We've been in deep prayer over this and I got over there as quickly as I possibly could and then of course," Kingsbury said. "We've put it on our prayer channel and everyone over here at the church has been praying and rallying behind this family,"

Kingsbury has opened his doors in hopes that rallying will continue and the community will continue to bring gifts and donate money to the Chapmans and that effort continue on Thursday.

"Thank God they're still here but, we're trying to do everything we can here from our church," Kingsbury said. "We've taken in an offering and hopefully people will come in and give goods – monetary or whatever."